GENREALITY

Since May I’ve been writing in a three-foot by two-foot corner of my bedroom, mainly so we could convert my writing room into a guest room for family and friends who came to visit over the summer. Now that everyone has gone back home, I’m moving back in for the fall, and then I’ll move upstairs to my book room for winter. I like to be mobile, and everything I write with is on wheels or very portable so I can easily move around the house.

But for all intents and purposes, this is my primary writing space:

I chose to keep the room as minimal and utilitarian as possible because I don’t like a lot of clutter around me when I work. The choice of colors (primarily sand and sea glass) are also deliberate; to me they’re muted and soothing while still reminding me of the beach, which is the one place in the world where I always relax.

My computer station is black because it was cheap and so am I. I keep my work area clean at all times; nothing goes on the station except the computer. I face a blank wall, and while I’ve tried hanging things there from time to time I find a blank wall is best (or I end up staring at the stuff on the wall instead of working.) Having my back to the only window in to room is important, too; otherwise it would be too tempting to open the blinds and look outside at the trees and horses and stuff on our neighbor’s property. (My work printer is currently perched on a cardboard box because I can’t find a printer stand small enough to suit me and my abbreviated work space.)

I’ve spent a lot of evenings on this couch editing from a hard copy of whatever new material I wrote that day. The quilt is for the floor, sometimes I like to throw all the pillows down and stretch out while I review and mark pages (again, just like at the beach.) The couch also folds out into a queen-size bed, which I have slept on when I work late so I don’t disturb anyone else in the house.

This is actually a spare folding sewing table I have that I can pull out and use as a worktable. I also keep a couple of non-writing projects on it (at the moment, two pictures I’m going to frame and a couple of books I’m reading) so I have something to do when I need a break.

This is my reading/worry chair. It’s a bit like a security blanket; when I feel like everything is going straight to hell I sit in it for a few minutes and either read a book or just brood until I work out whatever is bothering me.

It’s not a fancy room, and I really need to hang some pictures and things on the walls I can’t see from the computer station to make it a little more homey. The main thing is that the room works with me instead of against me, and often fades away while I’m writing so I’m not distracted from the work. That makes it the ideal writing space for me.

Do you guys have a favorite writing space at home or elsewhere? How have you arranged it to work better for you? Let us know in comments.

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Some authors hate writing short stories. They find it hard to fit a full story in so few pages. Maybe it’s because when I started writing I really had no clue what I was doing, but I thought writing short was easier. So I started out with short stories. The first few ’stories’ I wrote were around the 1, 000 word mark. Then I bumped up to 3,000, then 5, 000. Then I wrote GYPSY HEART, my first attempt at a novel. I aimed for 75,000, but it ended up being just over 50. I wrote another 20k novella before I wrote my first single title, BOUND.

Sometimes I still find writing short stories easier. Sometimes I find them harder. I’ve learned that it all depends on the story. The most important thing for an author to remember when trying to write short isn’t to keep the word count low…it’s that short stories and novellas are exactly that “Stories”.

Readers love a good story, no matter how long or short, it’s always the story that counts. It’s up to you, as the author, to decide what that story is, and to stick to it when you put pen to paper. (Or fingers to keyboard.)

When writing short you need to keep things simple in your mind. Don’t over think plot, or setting, or so many of the things we obsess over when writing a full length novel. Think the basics of storytelling. All stories need well developed characters, conflict, and resolution.

Here’s some of my thoughts on how to write short.

On Character Development:

Well developed characters can be done in a very quick and short way. Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of thinking just because you don’t have room to include a whole back story that you won’t be able to draw a clear and complete picture of your character for your readers.

The backstory for the character should still be done, you’ll need it in your head, even if not on the page. Knowing your characters makes them easier to draw. And you draw them for readers with simple and straight strokes.

Example:

Amanda Carrington set down the phone and listened to Emily – her secretary – giggling girlishly in the open-plan area of the office. It was the final straw. The girls irritating simpering was grating in her ear so much that she could barely concentrate. Leaving her cushioned chair, Amanda walked around the large oak desk and stalked to the door of her office. Enough was enough; this was an office, not a pick up joint.

In 75 words this gives the reader a picture of who Amanda Carrington is. The name, the fact that she has a secretary, her reaction to the secretary’s giggles, the oak desk , and finally her ‘pick-up joint’ line. These are all things that are carefully selected to give you an instant image of the character.

Is it a complete image? Not yet. But as the story moves on, we learn a little more through her thoughts and actions. What’s important is that you see it’s possible to do it in a short space, and not to let yourself be intimidated. Don’t let yourself feel any pressure to cram too much in low word counts. Instead, when you go over your first draft (you’ll see about that in a minute) you be selective in what you keep, or include.

When writing short you don’t have the space to tell backstories and explain why the character is the way they are, and readers won’t even notice that you didn’t give them the backstory if you do your job right. Why? Because the characters current thoughts and actions will tell the reader what kind of person they are at the time of the story, and that’s what matters when writing short.

On Conflict

When writing short, it’s my opinion that you need to keep things simple. By that I mean, only one big conflict, plot, or dilemma per story. No sub plots or secondary characters inching forward and maybe trying to steal the spotlight. Figure out what story you want to tell – and tell it.

Now why do I say plot or dilemma? Because the way I think of things is that short stories (10k and under) are about a situation or dilemma, but novellas can have a plot.

My rule is that short stories should never have a secondary story.
Novellas can have a continuing thread, if you are planning a series, or writing a novella to be a between the books treat for readers. Shiloh Walker does this very well. Her Hunter single titles are much more complex, yet she also write novellas as part of the same series/line. They stand alone, but they are also part of a series simply by the association. Make sense?

Another great example is Janet Evanovich. Her Stephanie Plum series is a huge hit, but she only puts out one book a year. But recently she released Visions Of Sugar Plums, Plum Lovin, and PLum Lucky as ‘between the numbers’ books. Those two novellas have very simple storylines with no subplots.

In my mind I think of things like this.

Short stories are like a half hour sitcom. A situation.

Novellas are like the one-hour drama. Not the soap opera or Desperate housewives type that are serials, but more like Law and Order or The Closer or even Angel, Buffy and Firefly. Each show deals with ONE PLOT. These shows also have threads that continue all season, and underlay each episode, but that’s because they are continuing. Make sense?

Novels are like a feature film. The good ones have it all. Action, drama, emotion and resolution.

On Resolution

I write the story not paying attention to word count at all. Just write it, if you need to have the characters back-story in it, and then write it in. If you need to describe them making their coffee and showering and doing every little thing, then do it. Myself, I tend to write short and sweet. Ok maybe not sweet , but you get what I mean. I tend to set the scene, complete with dialogue, and then move on. Yes, I’m always under my word counts.

The point is, write however is natural to you because voice and style are of major importance when it comes to writing short. Your voice and style is what will hook the reader and keep them reading. (But that’s a whole ‘nother subject)

Anyway, Just write it. Then decide what scenes need to be cut to hit your word count. (Or fleshed out) Go over the story and either add description, and action by layering in the treats. Or cutting back-story and trimming the excess and unnecessary.

When writing short always try to remember The story is the cake. The rest is just icing…and as much as we all love icing, too much of it can ruin a good cake.

So…have you ever written a short story? Do you want to?

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The BIAM Challenge is over.

First off, Congratulations to Dawn for writing 8900 words for the month of July.  You might not think you did a lot, but you did more than me.

Darlene  is queen butt kicker for this challenge with a total of 56, 719

And uhmm yeah. I so did not good. me…I’m just under 8k, the funny thing, I’m not upset about it. LOL I really enjoyed the month of just thinking about things and jotting down bits and pieces that I know will eventually become a novel. With no deadline, I’m in no hurry, and I’m finding it a very different process for myself.  And I think the end product will rock!

That said, Darlene, as top Butt Kicker of this BIAM Callenge, you win a treat from me. What is it? It’s the book of your choice.  Yep, just choose any book you want (for $25 or less) and email me the title and your snail mail address, and I’ll get that book to you.

Congratulations!

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I got an e-mail from a writer friend who picked up one of my books over the weekend. Evidently she couldn’t resist reading the last page while standing in line to pay for it. Her reaction was, well, classic. It went something like this:

How could you . . . ! I can’t believe . . . ! Arrrrrrrrrgh!

I didn’t resent that my pal read the last page first. I can’t do that myself (to me it’s like opening Christmas presents in July) but I know there are lots of people who do. Since I’m already notorious for often waiting until the very last page to offer a final twist, the temptation is even understandable (in this case the twist is delivered in the final two words of the novel, and it’s a whopper.) Nor did I mind the subsequent wheedling and pleading for an early copy of the next book in the series.

What made me run for the ibuprofen is that I didn’t know that this particular novel was already being sold. It’s not scheduled for release until August 6th, I donated the single early copy my editor sent to me for a charity drive, my author copies haven’t arrived yet, and I haven’t finished putting together the promo I was going to do for it on my author blog in August. That and Mom is going to be calling me any minute to say, “I saw your book at the store today, Lynn. What does a mother have to do? Go and buy a copy so she can read it?”

Fortunately Genreality had some extra post room this week, and Sasha was kind enough to let me use today’s space for some hurried, blantant self-promo, so without further whining, here’s an excerpt from my upcoming, I mean, current release, Crystal Healer:

(To set up the scene: Jarn, a bioengineered immortal physician, and her husband Duncan Reever have traveled with their alien friends to the remote planet of oKiaf to investigate why the primitive world has never been attacked by the malignant black crystal infecting the other inhabited worlds in the galaxy. While on planet, Jarn meets for the first time an alien female who is an old friend of Reever’s — a very good friend, as it turns out . . .)

As soon as we were alone, the Takgiba began stripping out of her clothing, revealing more black-and-white fur and a long, thin tail that moved as languidly as Uorwlan did.

“Secure the inside of the entry hide, will you, Jarn?” the Takgiba asked. “The natives won’t intrude on us, but they’ve been known to peek.”

I saw she intended to remove all of her garments, and turned to Reever. “You never let me sleep naked.”

He shook his head at me slightly before addressing the Takgiba. “Uorwlan, my wife and I are exclusive to each other. We will not have sex with you.”

“What?” The feline gave him a look almost as astonished as my own.

“She thinks she can couple with us?” I said, almost at the same time.

“How else am I to get warm?” Uorwlan gave me a hateful look. “So this is what you’ve done to him? Turned him into a Jorenian?”

I didn’t like that, especially as being exclusive had been Reever’s idea from the beginning. “Terrans are usually monogamous,” I informed her. “When I agreed to become his wife, I also accepted his ways.”

“That Terran” —Uorwlan pointed to Reever— “was never monogamous. Even when he shared my bed. In fact, he went through females almost as quickly as he did blades.”

I had forced myself to accept that Reever had given his love to Cherijo before me. Now it would seem a small army of females had had him even before her.

She studied my expression. “He didn’t mention that, did he? Ah, well, they never do. All males are seeders, you know, and they’re never truly happy unless they can spread it around. Did he ever tell you about the slave harem we liberated from the pleasure colony on Anigfel? I ended up putting guards on our cabin so he could get a few hours’ sleep. You wouldn’t believe what I had to do to have him to myself once a week.”

“What my husband did with you or anyone else in his past is irrelevant to me.” Anger made my voice cold. “All you need to know is that you can’t have him now.”

“Is that what you think, little sister?” She bared her teeth and tugged a blade out of her belt. “Duncan saved my life, and I’m in his debt. He can ask anything of me, and I will give it to him.” She tossed the dagger from one set of claws to the other. “So if he wants a place in my bed, on my ship, or anywhere else, it’s his.”

I pulled one of my own blades and held it ready. “Not anymore.”

“Perhaps I should go and sleep with Qonja and Hawk,” Reever said as he stepped between us and with two blurred motions took the blades from our hands. He looked at Uorwlan. “You are my friend, but Jarn is my wife, and I love her. You will respect that and our bond.” He turned to me. “And you, Wife. You will calm down and not provoke Uorwlan any further.”

“Provoke her?” I echoed, outraged. “She drew the first blade. You wish me to stand by the next time she loses her temper and let her stab me?”

Reever’s eyes darkened. “I wish you to leave her alone, Jarn.”

“If you are finished arguing,” Jylyj said from outside the side entry to the shelter, “we have been summoned to meet with the master hunter.”

If you’d like to read more, Crystal Healer, StarDoc book nine, can be ordered from B&N.com (who are also shipping it out early) here.

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While doing some casual surfing the other day, I noticed that Tor UK was running a competition in partnership with SciFiNow.com to help some lucky winner get their first novel published.  Even better, I noted that while it had originally been open only to writers in the UK, the contest had now been opened to writers anywhere in the world.  The winner would receive a contract to publish their novel through Pan MacMillan Publishers Limited (Tor’s parent company) in 2010, schedule permitting.

MacMillan is an excellent company and the contest sounded pretty good – publication was with a major house with an excellent reputation, writers who’d had a full length novel published anywhere in the world were automatically excluded so that the competition wouldn’t be grossly tilted in one direction or another, and the genre was limited to fantasy or science fiction furthering shrinking the contestant pool.  Nor was a full manuscript required for entry – all you needed was a synopsis and sample chapters.

I was all set to blog about the contest and tell my coaching clients to hurry up and enter before the August 20^th deadline, when I noted the following:

“For the purposes of this competition we will pay the winning author a 20% royalty on net receipts but there will be no advance (i.e. an advance payment against future sales). Our contract is non-negotiable and we acquire world rights, with rights revenue split 50/50. We also reserve the option to publish the author’s second novel.”

Wait just a minute, Pan MacMillan!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bigger bait and switch routine in my entire life.  You entice the unpublished author with the idea that they will get their book published by a reputable house, but then you offer terms that are the equivalent of highway robbery?  Shame on you!

Let’s take them one at a time:

1)    Royalty but no advance? Frankly, that’s crap.  If the book is good enough to be published, the author should get something out of it besides the promise of possible royalties, particularly when how the book is marketed, promoted, and distributed is entirely out of their hands.

2)    Non-negotiable contract?  Come on, now.   There is no way on earth I would ever enter into a contract that is completely non-negotiable.  A contract is an agreement between two parties and should be written to fairly represent both sides.  Allowing one party to cite the terms and telling the other party to take a hike is ridiculous.  (And no, getting the book published is not a fair trade.  If the book is good enough to be published, it can probably sell elsewhere.  And with an advance, to boot!)

3)    World rights?  You aren’t willing to pay an advance, but you are snapping up 50% of the income the writer might make by selling the work in other territories?  Sorry, but that’s adding insult to injury.

4)    Option on the next book?  Tell me, Pan MacMillan – does that option get exercised under the same contract terms?  Or does the author then gain the right to a fair agreement, with an advance and a better subsidiary rights rate?  At what point do you start acting as if the writer is someone you actually care about treating properly?

As you’ve no doubt guessed, I wouldn’t enter this contest to save my life.  What you are getting just isn’t worth what you are giving up.  There is a difference between being published and being published well – do not settle for the former at the expense of the later.

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Just a note:  I’m going to be taking over Mondays for Allison for a while.

I’m always working on something.  Short story, novel, brainstorming, revising, whatever.  No deadlines wait for the Muse, so write I must.  It’s a truism of every working writer’s life.

I’ve had the following situation come up a couple of times now.  Novel Project A has a deadline a year ahead, or perhaps no deadline at all because I’m writing it on spec or even (gasp) for the fun, to see what happens.  Because between deadlines and contracts, I’m still writing.  Suddenly, the contract comes through, or a project lands in my lap.  The deadline for Novel Project B:  six months from now.  Yikes!  So even thought Project A is halfway done and I’m really excited about it, I set it aside to work on Project B.  I finish Project B, then return to Project A.  At this point, Project A is 40,000 scattered words, and I may or may not remember what I was doing with them.

How do I regain lost momentum?  How do I go back to living in that world?  How fuzzy are my memories of what I wanted to have happen?  How good are my notes?  Do I remember the driving force that made me want to write the novel in the first place?

I’m about to go back to working on my second young adult novel, which is about 50,000 long and ¾ finished.  I wrote most of it over the spring, set it aside to work on the next Kitty book, and now I’m picking it back up again.  I haven’t looked at it since May, so I’m a little daunted.  However, I’m also looking at this as an opportunity.  Since it’s most of the way finished already, I can look at this as the first major revision and really come to the novel with fresh eyes.  I’m thinking of changing the main character’s name and possibly her ethnicity.  I’m going to finally figure out why one of the secondary characters is there.  I’m going to make sure all the plot dominoes are set up the way they need to be, and that the threads that I’ve put in place are coming together.

I’m going to read over to the manuscript to remind myself of where I’m at.  I’m going to take notes of what needs to be done still, of what I like and what I need to work on, and what questions I still need to research.  I’m going to remind myself why I wanted to write this book in the first place and what got me excited about it.  (Pirates!  Sword fighting!  Girls kicking ass!)

I’ve done this before, so I know I can.  I just have to roll up my sleeves and do the work.  I’m not going to see this as losing momentum, but as taking a valuable opportunity to step back from the work, look at it objectively, and then do everything I can to kick it to the next level.

Are you the kind of writer who has to finish one project before starting another?  Have you had the dilemma of having to set something aside in the middle?  How do you get back into it?

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